what2

since I do not have the money to buy a real one, will have to create it from scratch. Any ideas?

where would you suggest I order the crown?

I talked to Paul and he was willing to send me a replacement, but his factory gets them already glued in the case so I would have had to buy a case. Instead I ordered a small dome 30.6 acrylic and it looks great, though I had to shave the edges as it was a bit wide, I sanded it a bit at a time until it fit without epoxy. Also got a 30.4 mm mineral glass just in case I screwed that one up... ended up not needing it, so if anybody wants one let me know. Now I need a big crown, any ideas?

He actually sent me an extra hand and dial set with the watch, I wanted to play with aging. Good thing too as the secondhand got all bent when I dropped it an broke the crystal.

ordered a rep t-19 from ebay, also wrote to paul asking him to sell me two crystals. That is what I get for dropping it onto concrete.

it is his version of the 6538, I am thinking that it is really around 30.5, which is roughly the size of a tropic 19.

I measured and it looks to be 31mm across, any idea which of the aftermarkets are this size?

I ordered one from Paul that was listed on his site as bidirectional no click, which I do not like. Imagine my pleasent surpise to get it yesterday and it was a birectional click bezel.

thanks, I will give it a shot, bleached the insert last night.... one point I will raise for those trying this at home... check the paint, I left it in for a couple of minutes and nothing seemed to be happening, then a couple more and finally noticed a slight tint to the bleach, thought this is going to take for ever. Just to check I took the insert out and slid my finger across it and my finger turned black. In other words the paint was coming off in the bleach, but basically just turning to liquid black and not "moving" if that makes sense. Going to run the case through the washing machine as well when I get a chance

I've had good results with "goo-gone" and a razor blade

Got my 5508 from Paul today and have read the various methods of aging dials - coffee, tea, coke, baking and urine come to mind. I have tried coffee and coke on seiko dials to age them, but not urine or baking... I guess with the pee I would have to use the first one in the morning as that has the right color. Any definative results as to the best method? I had paul send me an extra dial and hands so I can experiment a bit, or in case I screw up the first ones.

since I will be undertaking the same chore am I safe in assuming you also remove the crystal before putting the watch in the washing machine?

Next time I ask a question about making a mod I will make sure it meets your requirements of what is a "usefull" upgrade, I guess I missed that page in the rwg rule book.

thanks for the pearl link, cheaper than ofrei too. I am looking a movement swap into a seadweller lite from andrew, from what I understand the one in it is low-beat while the DG 4813 is a high beat movement.

Two questions, so far... are the hands and dial a drop in for either a dg4813 or dg2813? And anybody have a link to the "correcter" pearl at ofrei?

that is more or less waht I was looking for, looks like a MBW. I have a friend visiting the rep mall in Guangjo this week, lets see what he reports back from his trip.

already went to ebay and bought the wrench. I am at the beach every weekend so the next step will be to build the home made pressure tester.

Figured I would cut my modding teeth on a $100 watch, new movement and beat the bejesus out of it. I have done a lot of work and seikos and such with custom dials, movements. So this will be cool, and also a reason to add a rolex case wrench to my crate of watch tools.

How does the trusty 5513 compare?

How close are Andrews 5513's to the orig?

thanks, and I guess TWA would not be much help either.

I have searched and read a number of threads about the cool 5513's that have been built up, and noticed all the initials MBK, FBI, TWA of the various suppliers. Now lets assume I am kind of dense and tend to order first and ask questions later... which is not far from the truth.. If you were going to buy a 5513 rep to wear and eventually mod which would it be, preferably one I can have shipped to me relatively quickly? A link would be great.....

I almost did not even go in, I know the seiko outlet generally has prices 2-3 times what the watches go for on ebay. May have to have an orlando get together

It is in the premium outlet mall, the one with the polo shop and the big Nike store

I actually was pleasently surprised by the prices, seemed to be right around where you would buy a good condition used watch for, about 30% off of what they go for new in the store. They also sell "outlet" versions of many of the watches which are the display models from regular stores which are even cheaper, though they only have a 90 days warranty and do not come with box or papers.. Also had a good selection of Zenith watches.